A student-designed and student-led sexual-history-taking module for second-year medical students.

Background: Sexual history taking is a core clinical skill for all physicians, yet many medical schools do not adequately address this important topic within the curriculum. This article describes a sexual-history-taking module that was initiated, designed, and presented by 2nd-year medical students for their peers as part of the required Introduction to Clinical Medicine (ICM) course.

Description: As part of this module, a group of 2nd-year medical students developed a large-group presentation and small-group role play cases to enhance students' basic sexual-history-taking skills in challenging situations, teach ways to ask nonjudgmental questions, and introduce legal issues that may arise.

The effect of a selective 5-lipoxygenase inhibitor, zileuton, on tissue damage in acute colonic inflammation in rats.

Though the mechanism of tissue damage induced by colonic inflammation in ulcerative colitis is unknown, it has been established that the inflammatory mediator and potent neutrophil (PMN) chemotaxin, leukotriene B4(LTB4), is present in elevated amounts in the inflamed mucosa. The unique role of 5-lipoxygenase in the production of leukotrienes has made it a target for inhibition. This study used a rat model of acute colonic inflammation induced by a single IP injection of Mitomycin-C to test the efficacy of a specific and potent 5-lipoxygenase inhibitor zileuton in the treatment of colonic inflammation.